Radio Atlantic, IA – AM 1220

3 men convicted for burglary in Malvern were sentenced this week

January 19th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

A Council Bluffs man faces a 5-year prison term for his role in a burglary which occurred in Malvern last Summer. According to the Omaha World Herald, 31-year-old Miguel Martinez was sentenced Tuesday in Mills County District Court to five-years in prison, for attempted burglary. Prosecutors say Martinez was one of three people convicted as a result of an investigation into the incident, during which he was the ringleader of the trio, and the one who breached a door when he was confronted by 66-year-old farmer Don Hopp during the August 17th incident. 19-year-old Patrick Hover, who prosecutors said was the “wheelman,” and 33-year-old Yosvani Galindo, of Omaha, plead guilty to charges of 2nd degree burglary, and were given suspended prison sentences of 10 years each. Both were sentenced to two years of supervised probation. Hover was ordered to reside at a Council Bluffs half-way house.

Prosecutors say the three men had been smoking methamphetamine in the countryside near Malvern when they hatched a plot to burglarize a nearby farmhouse. During the incident, Martinez was shot by Hopp, who said the shooting was an accident. He said he was outside his home after confronting the burglars when he fell, discharging the weapon. In December, a grand jury decided not to indict him. In an interview Monday at his Council Bluffs home, Martinez, who has a wife and seven children, said he and the other two were only looking for a place to stay overnight. He told the paper, “I just thought it was an abandoned house.”